Offender Profiling : Bottom up approach

Question 1

What is the bottom up approach and where is it used?

Answer 1

Profilers work up from evidence collected at the crime scene to develop a hypothesis about possible characteristics, motivations and social backgrounds of the offender. Its more data driven

• Data driven approach that involves using data from crime scenes to build a statistical database.
• Statistical information is analysed to find relationships between crimes
• Investigative psychology
• Geographical profiling
• crime mapping and analysis of spatial decision making - Marauders and commuters

It is used in Britain but America is starting to use it more often

Question 2

What are the 2 types of bottom up profiling ?

Answer 2

• Investigative psychology
• Geographical profiling

Question 3

What is investigative psychology ?

Answer 3

David Canter -

-A form of bottom up profiling based on statistical analysis and psychological theory.
- It aims to establish patterns of behaviour that are likely to occur/coexist among crime scenes.
- The statistical database acts as a baseline for comparison
- The specific details of the crime scene are then compared to this in the database to reveal details about the offender, family history etc.
- Also shows if crimes are linked and if the same person is likely to have committed the different offences.

Canter identified a 5 factor modelling for interpreting a crime scene:
1. Interpersonal coherence - Offender behaves consistently at scene of crime and real life
2. Time and place significance - of crime scene, may indicate a base or a mode of travel
3. criminal characteristics - Assumed characteristics based on those of offenders who committed similar crimes
4. Criminal career - crimes of same offender changes as they become more experienced
5. forensic awareness - how mindful the offender is of ‘covering their tracks’ by having good knowledge of the CJS

Question 4

What is geographical profiling ?

Answer 4

• Using the crime scene location and local knowledge to provide clues about the offender life, job, hobbies etc.
• Consists of 3 main principles:
  1. Least effort Principle - offender chooses most criminally attractive location closest to them

2. Distance Decay - The number of crimes reduce the further away from the offenders base you get, excluding a zone around their house which they leave so they’re less easily recognised
3. Circle of gravity theory - criminal commit crimes that radiate out from their homes creating a circle in which the offender base is located often in the centre. This is easier for marauders

Question 5

What is meant by crime mapping ?

Answer 5

Part of geographical profiling where information about the location of the crime scene to make inferences of the likely home or operational base of the offender. Its based on the principle of spatial consistency

Question 6

What is meant by spatial consistency ?

Answer 6

People commit crimes in a limited geographical space

Question 7

What is a marauder ?

Answer 7

An offender who has a base for their crimes and commits offences around this base. It’s easier to profile marauders as their base/. home is within (often in the centre) of the circle

Question 8

What is a commuter?

Answer 8

An offender who travels further distances in order to commit their crimes. Its harder to profile commuters as their homes lie outside of the ‘circle’

Question 9

Strengths of the bottom up approach to offender profiling

Answer 9

P - Supporting evidence
E- Copson - surveyed 48 police departments and found the advice provided from the profiler was judged to be useful in 83% of cases
E - This supports it as it is suggesting that it is a useful way to catch an offender and the police find it very beneficial to use
L - Therefore, this is a strength because it suggests that the bottom up approach to offender profiling is a useful investigative tool which is beneficial to the police when trying to catch the offender
H - However, cops also found that in only 3% of cases it led to the accurate identification of the offender. This decreases the validity of this investigative tool making it less useful as in only a very small number of cases was it accurate

P - can be applied to a wider range of crimes
E - This is due to the use of technology as you can look for patterns in a certain type of crime that has been committed.
E - This is a strength as it can be applied to many different types of crime where as the top down approach is only useful when looking at violent crimes.
L - Therefore, this means that the bottom up approach is more useful than the top down approach so is a helpful way to generate offender profiles as it can be applied to a wider range of crimes, making it easier to create a profile on offenders.

Question 10

Weaknesses of the bottom up approach to offender profiling

Answer 10

P - Geographical profiling may lack validity
E - This is because there is a dark figure of crime as old around 75% of crimes are reported to police meaning their database may lack useful information from these unreported crimes.
E - This is a weakness because the use of geographical profiling may lack this important information meaning there is a higher chance that it may be inaccurate and lead to an incorrect profile.
L - Therefore, a weakness of the bottom up approach to offender profiling is that the aspect of geographical mapping may lack validity as its reliant on the quality of data that the police have access to on their database and not all crimes are reported so this may not accurately reflect society